Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 Collection

The Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 collection, located at the DeSoto Trail Library and comprised of photostatic copies from the Freedman's Bureau records held by the National Archives, consists of letters, affidavits, reports and a newspaper clipping relating to a violent episode in Camilla, Georgia. The incident occurred on September 19, 1868 when freedmen, together with Republicans W.P. Pierce, John Murphy and F.F. Putney attempted to hold a political rally, and were met with opposition from the white townspeople of Camilla. The dates of the documents largely span from September 19 through October of 1868 and include correspondence between Caleb Chase Sibley, assistant commissioner for the Freedmen’s Bureau in the state of Georgia, the Commissioner, Oliver Otis Howard, the Secretary of War John M. Schofield, and George Gordon Meade, military commander of the Third Military District in Georgia, as well as lesser-known Bureau agents’ correspondence, reports and affidavits containing first hand accounts of the incident from freedmen and others.